‘Valencia’s cathedral is home to the holy grail’: novelist Jason Webster

Once the ugly sister of Spanish cities, Valencia has blossomed, with outstanding food and architecture. And for five days a year, it’s a city that doesn’t sleep

Valencia is a jewel that foreigners are only beginning to discover. For years it was Spain’s unloved sister: in 1970, critic Kenneth Tynan dubbed it “the world capital of anti-tourism”. To be in Valencia “is to be permanently 20 minutes this side of suicide”, one visitor told him. All that, thankfully, has changed, with a thorough face wash and big building projects. The gothic architecture is world class, and the Mercado Central knocks the socks off Barcelona’s La Boqueria market.